Roya falahi biography

September 23, 2014 - December 6, 2014

Falahi is known for her large-format photography in which she combines portraiture with narrative tableau compositions. This exhibition, Study of Studs, includes a range of artwork created between 2011 and 2014 in which the artist expands on her photographic work and explores contemporary perspectives on identity using divergent materials.

Falahi’s arresting self-portraits serve as points of departure about identity.

The striking color-saturated photograph, Layers of Unrest 2009/Roya as Neda (2011), pays homage to the Iranian student, Neda Agha-Soltan, who was brutally assassinated in 2009 during the Iranian election protests. Inserted within this tightly arranged altar-like composition is the artist’s own image standing in for the murdered Neda.

For the portrait series, Headbang/Covert Ops. (2012), Falahi completely encrusted a hijab, or head covering, with metal studs. This series’ mysterious and discomfiting figures are all se